The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has approved the Oxford University-developed AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine for use in Australia.
Much of Australia’s vaccine roll-out strategy hinged on the AstraZeneca vaccine being approved, as millions of doses are being manufactured locally in Melbourne by CSL.
It comes after the TGA approved the Pfizer vaccine last month.
In a statement, the TGA said it had approved the AstraZeneca vaccine for people aged over 18 years.
It said while people over the age of 65 “demonstrated a strong immune response” to the vaccine, not enough people had been infected by COVID-19 in the clinical trials to determine its efficacy for that age group.
“The decision to immunise an elderly patient should be decided on a case-by-case basis,” the statement said.
Australia has secured 53.8 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
More to come.
